We had some narrow escapes, until we secured his mouth, and then he fell asleep." * * * * * "Some Red Lake Indians having traded here for liquor which they took to their camp, quarrelled amongst themselves.

One jumped on another and bit his nose off.

It was some time before the piece could be found; but, at last, by tumbling and tossing the straw about, it was recovered, stuck on, and bandaged, as best the drunken people could, in hopes it would grow again" (Alexander Henry, jun.).
* * * * * As regards drunkenness, several authors among the early explorers declared that the French Canadian voyageurs were more disagreeable when drunk even than the Amerindians, for their quarrels were noisier and more deadly.

"Indeed I had rather have fifty drunken Indians in the fort than sixty-five drunken Canadians", writes Alexander Henry in 1810.

And yet the extracts I have given from his journal show that it would be hard to beat the Amerindians for disagreeable ferocity when intoxicated.
Henry, summing up his experiences before leaving for the Pacific coast in 1811, writes these remarks in his diary:-- "What a different set of people they would be, were there not a drop of liquor in the country! If a murder is committed among the Saulteurs (Ojibwes), it is always in a drinking match.